Create and Host your Website on Dropbox Using Site44

Ever dreamed of becoming a web designer? I know I have, since I got my very first Internet connection, I was fascinated on how designers create websites, and I wanted to learn how they do it. Over time, I did learn the methods, but I’m sad to say that the interest for designing websites has gone.

What I do remember from that time is the lack of proper information on how to do this, and especially how do you upload a website to the Internet. This single issue was something that eluded me at the time, and I thought it was something very complicated that only experts could do.

Now you can create and upload a website in only a few minutes. How is that? By using Site44, a service that allows you to create web-pages and websites in HTML code in a matter of minutes. It comes in the form of a Dropbox app that creates the index.html file in your Dropbox account and by locally modifying the file, in a few seconds, your changes appear on your newly created website. The process couldn’t be simpler!

Step by step guide to create a simple website using Site44

1. Before we begin, make sure that you have a Dropbox account and that you are logged in, so the app can create the necessary files. Afterwards, head over to the site44 main page and click on the “Log In with Dropbox and get started” button. You will be prompted to allow the app to access your Dropbox storage, and after agreeing with the terms and conditions and providing a name for your website, your files are created.

2. If you have Dropbox installed on your computer, you will find the index.html file in your Dropbox folder, under “Apps” and the name of your website. From here, you can modify your page as you please, save the file and in just a few seconds, the website will be updated with the new content. Of course, for more advanced users, you could use a third party software (such as Adobe Dreamweaver) to create your website and then upload it to your Dropbox website.

One other interesting feature of Site44 is that it provides free hosting for websites (website-name.site44.com) or it allows you to add your own domain (if you have your own), but no matter the option you choose, the process of updating is still the same. Site44 tries to bring back to life the old school HTML editing, and make the process of creating a website accessible to everyone. Also, for those who manage websites, using this service will set you free of FTP programs such as FileZilla or others.

Ionut Nedelcu Author I often wonder, where is technology heading? What do all of these advances mean for us and for our future? I sometimes miss the days when I didn’t know how to use a floppy disk, or how a computer CPU works, but now, until I find an answer to my questions, I’ll keep tracking these advances and show everything I find to those who share my interests.